Royal Enfield INT650 Road Rocker Takes Cosmetic Influences From Old-School Choppers

Of course, traits like modern-day reliability, old-school aesthetics, and accessible pricing are highly desirable in the eyes of custom bike builders, too. Add them all up on one machine such as the INT650, and you’ve got a perfect starting point for something potentially remarkable. Now, we’ve seen quite a few bobbed Interceptors from workshops around the world, but the one shown above is far cooler than a lot of them!

It was put together by K-Speed of Bangkok, Thailand back in 2021, admittedly with very little regard for practicality. As opposed to building a functional daily rider for packed city streets, the guys took a much more unusual route for the sake of uniqueness. Stripped-down and austere though it may be, their customized Royal Enfield required some very intricate mods to reach its current form.

Many of these had to do with deleting a large chunk of the bike’s OEM equipment, including its front and rear suspension, bodywork, and wheels. The Thai experts also got rid of the cockpit hardware and stock exhaust, while revising the frame to bring about the desired stance. As you can probably tell, the Interceptor’s skeleton has undergone a serious makeover during K-Speed's treatment.

Instead of simply building a replacement subframe, the guys tweaked the framework’s entire top section from front to back. The backbone slants downward from the steering head to the rear shock mounts in true bobber and chopper fashion. We notice a pair of enclosed aftermarket shock absorbers taking care of suspension duties down south, and they help to achieve the slammed posture that K-Speed was looking for.

At twelve o’clock, they eliminated the standard telescopic forks to make way for a bespoke springer setup built from scratch. This new component lowers the front end while increasing trail, further enforcing the INT650’s bobbed anatomy. The forks connect to a laced 21-inch wheel down low, but there’s no such thing as a front brake on this creature.

All its stopping power occurs out back, where you will now find a premium Brembo caliper pinching a drilled brake rotor. These parts are paired with a 16-inch rear hoop, and both wheels feature vintage-style rubber with sawtooth tread patterns. Like many other things on this custom Enfield, the tires don’t score very highly in terms of practicality.

They definitely look the part, though, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better visual fit for this type of project. Moving on to the bodywork, you’ll come across a chromed chopper-style fuel tank that’s been manufactured in-house, with Diablo graphics nodding to the firm’s very own aftermarket product line. The main tank’s fuel capacity is humble at best, so K-Speed fashioned a secondary chamber and installed it beneath the seat.

It’s hidden behind tailor-made side panels with three mesh-covered circular openings each, and the aforementioned saddle is a stylish solo affair cloaked in black leather. To round things out at six o’clock, the shop added a fresh rear fender and a swingarm-mounted taillight, which sits nice and low on the right-hand side.

On the opposite end, one may see an LED spotlight attached to the steering neck on the same side as the taillight. There are no turn signals to speak of, and bare-bones is the key word in the cockpit area, as well. After ditching all the stock paraphernalia, K-Speed relocated the kill switch and ignition, fitted a high but narrow chopper handlebar, and topped it off with snazzy grips and an internal throttle.

The cockpit is devoid of any levers, switches, or instrumentation, making the front half of the bike look much leaner than the rear. Changing gears on this Interceptor (later dubbed Road Rocker) is something of a novelty, as it is done via a hand shifter located near the left foot peg. As for the clutch lever, it can be found right at the end of this module alongside an aftermarket grip.

Now, this whole mechanism doesn’t even pretend to favor functionality or offer any sort of benefit over the standard setup, but it’s unusual and that’s what really matters here. In addition, bespoke brackets were used to reposition the foot pegs and thus complete the specimen’s ergonomic package.

Last but not least, the Road Rocker was treated to an assortment of tasteful final touches, including finned engine cases and a simple, yet gorgeous dual exhaust system. The pipework terminates in groovy end caps from K-Speed's proprietary aftermarket catalog, and the headers have been chrome-plated just like the fuel tank and both rims.